You Can Wish in One Hand…

Well, you know how the rest of the saying goes. Life has been busy and I wish there were more hours in the day to do all that I want (and need) to do. For instance, different types of crafts. I have a room full of crafting supplies such as many, many skeins of yarn, boxes of embroidery threads in varying content (silk, cotton, wool), fabric for sewing garb, hundreds of patterns for costumes, knitted items and embroidery. There are some odd ball things down in that room that I obtained the supplies for but have not started like mandala rock painting or ballet point shoes to paint and decorate or teeny tiny crochet hooks so I can try crocheting those beaded tube bracelets. Yet, what I end up doing more often than not is knitting with scrap yarn (which there is a metric ton of practically) and making scrunchies or wrist warmers. Or, of course, socks, but the scrunchies and wrist warmers are a memorized pattern and i don’t need to look at anything while doing it so its my go to for knitting while watching tv after work or even when I take my son to the movies and I knit during it if it isn’t one in particular that I wanted to see, but I go with him so he can see it. Oh, you know what else is down there? About a hundred blank journals to write down my thoughts but what I realize is I don’t get to journal everyday like I want to due to the fact that by the end of the work day I am mentally exhausted and all I want to do is play the Oscar winning role of a couch potato watching Supernatural re-runs on Netflix. My hubby who is a carpenter does a similar version of my role on the other end of the couch but his artistic medium is more musically based with varying base tones of snoring. While he is physically exhausted from his profession, mine is mental. Yes, I said it, my job makes me mental and I am about to embark on the next level of this by returning to college, after 20 years to earn a Master’s Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling so I can more knowledgably help people with disabilities become educated and gainfully employed. Not to mention, the pay raise will be significant and alleviate the stresses of the rising costs of living that has come with the current POTUS despite his claims and promises it would go down drastically when he was voted in again ( and not by me, let me just say that right now and make that clear).

In another instance that falls under helping people, a couple weeks ago while talking to my Mom, she mentioned her frustrations with transferring funds and shares from my deceased Father’s name to hers. See, its been three years since he passed and these funds/shares, etc. have a time limit on transferring them over or they become unclaimed property by the state. Since my Dad never made a will (because he was paranoid if he did it would make him die sooner?? I don’t really know..), nothing was made legal of how he wanted his estate handled. Now, let me just say I love my Mom, as trying as she can be sometimes, she is not tech savvy at all, has a short fuse with things she doesn’t understand and she also has the attention span of a goldfish if it isn’t in her scope of interest, i.e.: the amount of paperwork it takes to get said items transferred to her name. This is why things have sat for three years and she was in a panic two weeks ago on the phone with me when she started getting letters saying if she didn’t take care of it she’d lose what he had. So, even though I am stressed with “college crunch time” at work, I made her send me all the letters, death documents, statements, phone numbers and notes on conversations she’s had with financial advisers and I set myself upon this task for her. After two weeks, two financial adviser conversations and one state treasury conversation later (and several hours filling out forms and scanning documents), yesterday I emailed the last document out for her and hopefully in about a month, all these outstanding things will be handled. The gratitude in her voice when she said thank you for handling it for her made it worth it, but I will say that after work yesterday (and the final email sent) I sat on the sofa knitting a wrist warmer and watched Jaws 1, 2 and 3. Well, most of three because the 3D effect and the graphics of the movie were so bad even my mentally fatigued mind had had enough and I went to bed. That was 10pm. At 2:30am, a shout from my son’s bedroom (an excited shout at a video game he was playing, yes he’s a night owl) woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, here I am journaling at 3:30am and it’s the weekend so it doesn’t matter I’m awake this early because I can nap later while floating in the pool.

One thing I do wish is that instead of playing the Oscar wining role of a slug watching t.v., I’d like to be one of those people that handles stress by getting up and being active or exercising to alleviate it. I went on Wegovy about 10 months ago and have lost 35 pounds. I feel better already, but my goal weight is still a weighs off (ha, ha..see what I did there?) and I have hit a plateau for about two months now. Being more active would help with that I’m sure. It makes me think what makes one person love say mountain biking or jogging as a hobby and another like hand crafts or some other less active activity. I would say my injuries are my reason (having had a back breaking car accident at 24 which is now osteoarthritis). I wants to be and wish I were more active. I also wish to win the lottery so I don’t have to work and I can pursue my hobbies full time, but as they saying goes “We can wish in one hand…” you know how the rest goes.

One piece of advice before I sign off: MAKE A FUCKING WILL! Don’t leave your loved ones to go through this headache and heartache of stress and mounds of paperwork after you are gone. Put down what your wishes are and who beneficiaries are, make it all legal and pick an Executor/Executrix wisely, someone who has patience and knowledge to handle the phone calls, paperwork, cancellations of accounts, etc. You can do it online for free for God’s sake! There are several web sites out there that will help you. If you’re in a Union for your job, they most likely have assistance with this as well, as I know mine does. I miss you Dad, so damn much but seriously!?! (at least Mom learned from this and set things up immediately after my Dad died)

Well, I hear the coffee pot calling my name and hubby will be getting up soon. I will endeavor to post more often and I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful day. Ciao!

Random Blog title #1

I never know what to title these things. My entries tend to run through a rainbow of subject matter.

Right! So yesterday when I went out to drive my son to work, through on the standard issue New York State winter attire and stepped outside. I immediately started to sweat. It was 60 degrees outside. In December!! Dropped him off and came back and decided I could not waste this beautiful day and decided to go for a walk. Tried to convince family members to join me but they were too engulfed in their MMORPG and said no. I walked to the park in my neighborhood and circled the baseball field three times then walked back home. I stopped for about 1 min at each rotation to rest the low back which wasn’t screaming but it was making itself known. I listened to a book on Audible app on my phone and I kept a slightly faster than normal walking pace. I got my heart rate up, didn’t have trouble breathing nor did it trigger my asthma. I was about for about forty minutes I would say. It felt great. I feel like after all these months being cooped up or out wearing masks that I had fresh air in my lungs. (mind you I had a mask handy but no one was in the park so I was safe to keep it down) Later when sitting home I felt better. A little more invigorated. I did about 5400 steps by bedtime. I know..its not 10K but you can’t go from a desk job with no exercise to walking or running 5 miles a day. I’m taking it slow. My weight loss goal is not for a year and a half. I want it to be slow so I don’t boomerang back up. I want this to be for the rest of my life. I want this to last and be the norm from now on.

When I was walking yesterday, listening to my book (World of Warcraft: War Crimes by Christie Golden) I suddenly realized that all the things I do that I enjoy: knitting, embroidering, gaming, etc, feed my mind. It never occurred to me to feed my body what it needs to: movement and exercise. Yea, I’m 48 years old and I don’t know why this JUST occurred to me. It really was a sort of epiphany for me. I’m sure others have come upon this ages ago but I suppose my mind was just on other things. I am going to make sure I do something each day. Walking, biking, belly dancing..who knows. Maybe I’ll just scroll Youtube and pick something and give it a try. Lord knows there are so many things on there. (I totally understand why neither of my children are very interested in television now. ) So, it’s suppose to be quite chilly today. I think I will browse Youtube and see what I can come up with.

Oh yea, did 20 wall push ups yesterday too. Shooting for same number today..maybe 25.

Alright..back to my coffee and porch time with hubby till he goes to work.

Ciao!

Floundering…flop, flop

Have you ever felt like you’re in a large room of people and things and you’re spinning around with no direction in mind…no one specific person to talk to…no idea what to do? Feel like a fish out of water and your flopping around wondering how to get back to the comfort and safety of the glistening life saving water?   That is what I have been feeling of late.  For a year and a half almost my focus was on my son and all that he needed to get well. Now he is well. Shortly after my last post in July, my old employer faked the business closing so he could lay me off with little guilt on his part. Needless to say the business is still open and he fessed up to the truth of it all to my husband and said he will always need him at the company and kept him. While I miss the stability of the job and spending the days with my husband I do not miss the stress of working for that man.  Since then, I have felt as I have described above. No direction. On a whim, I applied for a job with the post office as rural route carrier. Sent in my resume, passed the online assessments, went in for an in person assessment test and then was called in for an in person interview. When we interviewed, we were then told it was only guaranteed 1 day a week to cover the day off of the career carrier we were subbing for, which was Saturday or Monday. We were not considered career so we weren’t given benefits of any type.  We were also only allowed to work for them because if they called to have us come in other than that specified day off, we had to set them as a priority.  Everyone said this was a great opportunity, a foot in the door. So I said yes.  I went through all the training and started late October fully.  That’s when it went south but as much as I could go on, I wont. Needless to say, it isn’t anything i was told it would be. I don’t see or spend time with my family now because its every weekend and I come home exhausted and practically fall asleep on the couch at 7:30. I haven’t been to an SCA event since early October and unless I find other employment, won’t be at one for a couple months.  I have been searching the post office web site for different jobs to apply for but none are available that I want…or they are two hours away in the city.

I was watching Julie&Julia last night and realized that I felt a lot like Julie in the movie. So many things that I have wanted to do in my life, with my life and just…haven’t. I have a degree in Art and can’t find a thing to do with it for employment. I feel like I chose poorly when I decided on what to pursue for a degree.  I want to desperately work professionally as an embroideress but there are no jobs locally that I have found so far. I see these fabulous works that women make but those jobs seem to be over seas in England or Italy where the fashion trade originates from or where embroidery is still needed for museums and royalty. The Royal School of Needlework in England is a dream to visit..hell I would love to have attended there. Nothing here in po-dunk Port Ewen.  I did come to the decision last night that I was going to attempt to revive my joy of cooking that I once had by digging out my copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and trying my hand at a few recipes. I will not be killing myself and doing the whole book in a year as she did..I don’t have the budget for that, but a recipe once a week or every other week wouldn’t be bad.

I guess I’m in a rut. A deep one at that. I want to do it all but have no gumption to get up and start. Admittedly it’s been like this for a while. Everyone tells me I’m so strong but quite honestly I feel anything but strong. I feel weak and sad. Also scatterbrained and without focus or direction. What i want right now in life is to have a good job that pays fairly descent, that lets me have weekends with friends and family to do fun things and isn’t real stressful and doesnt cause my arthritis to flare up daily. Is that so much to ask? I have skills in so many areas and feel like they never quite seem to fit any one thing out there.  Dear powers that be….HELP!

New Project….TUG BOAT!

So, a year ago I put myself on a list to paint a tug boat for my town’s tug boat trail.  Seems as if every town has some icon that represents them. When I lived in Allentown, I recall horses or mules. I believe Kingston has Peacocks.  In our case, a tug boat as we have several ports….plus..Port Ewen is the name of my town.  Last week I got a call from the township asking if I still wanted to paint one and I of course said yes. I pick it up today.  Here is a Facebook link for the Tug Boat Trail:

www.facebook.com/pg/tugboattrail/about/?ref=page_internal 

They request that you paint it in acrylic paints and they will clear coat it. They will be posted around the town and then towards the fall, they are auctioned off.  I am going to go to Joann’s and get a supply of fresh acrylic paints (lucky me I was just texted a 20% off entire order digital coupon) and brushes to do the job.  My dilemma is what do I want to paint it like?  I have had a suggestion of a Childhood Cancer theme as a tribute to my personal experiences with it. I have also had the idea of making it look similar to a viking ship, but am trying to figure out how to make that work. Since the viking ship landed here earlier this year, I thought that would be a nice tribute and idea. Ryan is going to help me brainstorm. Since his drawing skills surpass mine, he will draw/sketch and I will paint.  When I pick it up this afternoon, I will post a picture of the blank canvas.

I am very excited about this. Its been years since I have painted anything other than a couple of ceramics at a local class. I will be happy when I settle on a design and set to it.

 

Edit: Here is the blank canvas…so to speak.

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